


From Eternity, Stephen Colbert.

by Stephen_Holmes



Category: Fake News RPF, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (TV)
Genre: Cancer, Death, Family, Gen, I'm Sorry, Major character death - Freeform, Platonic Relationships, really fucking sad, wifeless!Stephen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 18:36:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10471440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stephen_Holmes/pseuds/Stephen_Holmes
Summary: Sometimes in life we meet people who complete us. People who we love and care for immensely. People who become family.And sometimes we lose them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing. Please don't sue me.
> 
> To my readers, I'm sorry. In advance. In my defense, I'm a really fucked up person.
> 
> Please do comment!
> 
> Also I got the idea after reading @Jon Colbert's "Three Phone Calls". It's really good. Go check it out. So yeah, all due credit to them.

Jon Stewart had known Stephen Colbert for a long time, far longer than either of them cared to remember. He had first met Stephen when he'd joined the daily show a decade ago. There had been a spark between them, that had grown into an unwavering bond of love and respect between the two. They'd bonded over shared jokes, and late night beers and all nighters pulled in the hopes of pushing out just one more piece. Eventually it got to the point where they'd become two halves of a whole.

Jon didn't care what anybody else thought, but if Stephen spoke up he listened and almost always did as Stephen suggested. And Stephen- that kid spent half his life trying to get a laugh out of him and the other half watching Jon's back. Jon didn't even realize how much their days revolved around each other until he went home to his wife and realized how out of sorts he felt without having the floppy haired correspondent around him.

He had never felt as grateful for his wife than in those moments as she reminded him the he was Jon and not just a part of JonandStephen. Then of course he immediately felt guilty about it, after all Stephen didn't have a wife to go home to.

Jon had often wondered- in the early days of his friendship with the taller man- why Stephen had never settled down. Then one drunken night he asked his friend and Stephen told him of a woman with eyes like stars and a smile that could light up his world. He told Jon of how they fell in love and got married and lived happily for two years until she died in a car crash as she was driving home to tell him that she was pregnant.  
Stephen never told Jon her name, and Jon never asked. He just looked at his friend as Stephen pressed his hand against his breast pocket and Jon tried to swallow around the lump in his throat and blink away the sudden sting in his eyes.  
Years later Jon would find out that Stephen carried a matching pair of wedding rings in that particular pocket of his coat.  
He didn't realize it at the time, but that was the day when Stephen made the transition from 'close, cherished friend' to 'family, brother, beloved' in Jon's mind.

 

The rest was history. Stephen was almost always over for dinner on the weekends and he had Tracey enchanted with his southern charm and warm smiles. She always ensured he had food to take and occasionally showed up at the studio with separate lunches for them both. When Nate was born, Jon introduced Stephen to his son as Uncle Stephen, his godfather, and blinked when he noticed the tears in the younger man's eyes.  
"Honestly Stephen, you had to know. There's nobody else I'd rather trust with my son." Stephen had smiled then, and engulfed both him and Nate in a hug, being careful with the infant.  
"Don't worry buddy, I'm gonna spoil you rotten" Stephen smiled down at the child, pressing a careful kiss to his soft hair.  
Behind Stephen, Tracey smiled at Jon, and Jon felt a warmth in his chest as he looked at the people in front of him- Tracey, Stephen and Nate- and realized that he had family now, a proper one. Not the mess he'd grown up with. These were people he loved and who loved him and he'd be damned if he ever let them go.

  
When Maggie was born a couple of years later, Jon had once again called Stephen in first, before any of their other friends and family. He had entered cautiously, a sleeping Nate held carefully in one arm as he shut the door behind him.  
"So? Is it a boy or a girl?" Stephen had asked softly after he'd looked at Tracey's sleeping form and assured himself that she was okay. Jon had felt his heart swell with love for Stephen as he watched him gently readjust Nate on his shoulder - the man looked after his family and never asked for anything in return.  
"A girl. We're gonna call her Maggie." Jon could hear the amazement in his voice and saw Stephen grin at him as he pulled Jon into a rough one-armed hug.  
"Congrats buddy! Don't worry we'll beat the boys off together." Stephen laughed pressing a kiss to Jon's cheek. Hours later, Jon clicked a picture of Stephen standing with Maggie held in his arms as he looked down at her with a gentle expression that spoke volumes. It was by far his favorite photo of the day, and when she saw it, Tracey's too.

 

The years flew by and soon Stephen got his own show. Their legendary bromance that had been the core of the daily show was suddenly gone. If he was honest with himself, the two months after Stephen left to start the report were horrible both for himself and his staff. He was continuously grouchy and eternally frustrated with how nobody else seemed to get him. It had taken Sam yelling "We can't all be Stephen, Jon!" for him to finally realize what a dick he was being and get back to normal.

It took him two weeks to finally realize that Stephen moving to his own show would change nothing between them. He still dropped by to Jon's house to crash on his couch and they still did random stuff together and joked about silly things and people. Everything was exactly the same except that Jon had finally acknowledged that it was the work that he'd loved about his job. It'd been Stephen.  
Time moved on, and Stephen, Tracey and he had some weird three way parenting system in place. If the kids wanted fun they came to him. If they needed serious advice they went to Tracey. If it was some combination of those two in addition to getting some ridiculously expensive toy, they went to Stephen. Honestly the man was spoiling them rotten.

 

 

It was sometime late in October, three years later, when Stephen drove to Jon's house. His hands were trembling as he turned into the driveway. The manilla folder lay innocently in the seat next to him. For a moment Stephen sat in the car, breathing shallowly as he tried to process everything. His hands were cold and his head felt clammy and he wondered if he would ever feel okay again.  
Blinking he stared at the house in front of him. He could hear faint sounds of Nate and Maggie laughing and Jon growling playfully as he no doubt played the monster in their little game. Tracey would probably be in the kitchen, getting dinner ready with that small smile on her face, humming along to some random song on the radio. They were happy, healthy.  
He, on the other hand, was neither.  
Did he really want to bring this news to them? They were happy. He didn't want to ever encroach upon that. If he brought this into their home, Jon would probably get really upset and so would Tracey. They'd be constantly stressed and they already had enough on their plates. Most importantly, if the kids found out. . .  
The kids. He'd sworn he'd look after them like they were his own. That he'd look after them and keep them happy for as long as he lived.  
No. he wouldn't do this to them. He couldn't do this to them. They deserved every happiness in the world.  
He could deal with this by himself.  
He had to.

 

Tracey Stewart opened her front door just as Stephen's car turned off their driveway. Behind her, Jon frowned at the sight of the familiar Audi driving away before shrugging and turning back into their home. Sighing, she went back in too, trying to ignore the niggling feeling that something was terribly wrong.  
Stephen would tell them if it was important.  
Years later, she would still curse herself for it.

 

It was a Thursday afternoon, two hours before taping when Tracey burst into his office looking distressed. Jon stood up immediately, one hand going towards his wife and the other to his phone, ready to dial one of his many contacts in case needed.  
"Honey what's wrong?" Jon asked looking into her worried brown eyes.  
"Jon you need to call Stephen now. Like right now."  
"Whoa hey. I'll talk to him over the weekend okay? Now why don't you tell me what's got you so worried?"  
"He hasn't been around in almost a month Jon. He used to be around almost always earlier and now he doesn't even call and-"  
"Tracey It's only natural-"  
"No it's not Jon!"  
"Maybe he just decided he needed some space?" Jon knew even as he said the words that it wasn't true. Stephen wouldn't ever think that.  
"It's Stephen Jon. He's not like that. He loves us far too much to just walk away without saying anything."  
Jon fell silent. If he was honest with himself, he'd been worried too. "What brought this on?"  
"Jon I was watching the report and," here Tracey swallowed, her eyebrows contracting and something in Jon clenched. "And he looks so thin. He'd look ill but it's hard to say under all that make up. Something's not right with Stephen Jon. Please go talk to him."  
Her brown eyes were pleading and worried and Jon agreed.

 

Four hours later he was standing outside Stephen's apartment door. He used his set of keys and gently opened the door.  
"Stephen?" Jon asked softly as he walked in. The apartment was a mess, there were take out boxes and beer bottles and -  
Pill bottles. A lot of orange bottles with those white caps, strewn about the place. Some empty, some full. As he made his way towards the bedroom, he felt his blood pressure steadily rise. Was Stephen doing drugs? If he was, Jon was going to beat his ass up. Was he ill? Should Jon call a doctor?  
Suddenly, Jon was afraid. He was frightened of what he'd find behind the door.  
When he finally pushed the door open, he nearly laughed when he saw reality.  
Stephen was asleep.  
He still had his glasses on and there was a booklet of some kind in his hands. Jon almost smiled until he looked at Stephen. Really looked at him.  
The man had lost an alarming amount of weight and there was a pale, clammy look to his face. Jon frowned, he'd need to get some real food into the kid.  
Tiptoeing towards the sleeping man, Jon gently took off Stephen's glasses and tugged the book out of his grip, looking down to see what he assumed would be a Tolkien narration.  
It wasn't.  
In that moment, looking down at the book Stephen was reading, Jon felt his world tilt on its axis. His breath caught in his throat and his eyes froze on the stray line he'd read.

  
Cancer.

  
No, fuck no. Not him. Not Stephen. He couldn't have cancer. There was no way-  
Maybe he was reading it for the show? He didn't have to have cancer to read about it. Jon was just being silly.  
"Jon?" Stephen asked sleepily as he jerked awake. Jon must have made some noise. "Jon what are you doing here?"  
Jon swallowed trying to remember the excuse he'd rehearsed but his brain couldn't get over the word he'd read.  
Cancer.  
"Do you have cancer?" His voice was hoarse his eyes intent upon Stephen which was the only reason why he caught the lie.  
"No of course not. I was just curious." Stephen laughed and Jon felt his heart stop when it wracked up a cough. Giving Stephen a conveniently placed tissue, he watched him cough into it.  
The paper came back red.  
"You're lying. To me Stephen. You're lying to me." There was a faint roar in his ears and his voice was trembling and Stephen was out of focus and Jon couldn't stop the book from falling out of his shaky hands. Stephen had cancer. He'd had cancer and Jon hadn't been there. Jon hadn't been there to help him.

He was crying he realized. Tears and hiccups, the whole package. A moment later, he was engulfed in a familiar warm hug.  
Except the man was thinner, almost painfully so; and his body was warmer and he stank of chemicals and medicines.  
"Y-you didn't tell me. W-why didn't you tell me? I'd have been there" Jon whispered into the shoulder in front of him, clutching onto his brother like he'd disappear.  
"I didn't wanna drag you into this" His whisper was equally pained and vulnerable.  
"You moron. How were you planning on hiding this? But it's okay, we can fix this now. We'll get you better in no time, you'll see." Jon spoke rapidly, torn between anger and fear.  
Stephen gave a harsh laugh, the kind that hurt both of them.  
"Jon I have six months."

 

Lung cancer. Untreatable.

That's what Stephen had. It was funny, Jon was the one who'd smoked like crazy but Stephen was the one who got lung cancer. It was sort of a theme with them really. Jon made the crazy decisions and Stephen took the plunge for better or worse.  
As he pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and helped Maggie and Nate out, Jon wondered if today would be the day. Stephen's six months had been up four days ago and he'd still stuck around so everyday was a blessing really. Looking at his kids, now eight and six, he really hoped not. Stephen's death would crush them.

  
He entered Stephen's hospital room with Tracey's hand warm in his. The kids immediately tackled Stephen in a hug and for the next twenty minutes all his attention was on them.  
The man talking to his children now was a far cry from the one who would single handedly carry them both around a year ago. That man had been strong, lean and alive in every sense of the word. This one was frail, painfully thin and breathed like every breath hurt.  
Jon looked at the morphine levels and saw that it was low enough for Stephen to be lucid. Which meant he was in extreme pain right now. One look at his still bright eyes and wide smile as he spoke to Nate and Maggie though, made it impossible to see any trace of it.  
By some miracle, Stephen had retained all his hair. Chemo hadn't been too strong. The doctors had known even before starting that there was no hope. Jon hated them for that.  
A week ago, Stephen's family had dropped by to say their goodbyes. It had been the most heartbreaking thing Jon had seen. But it had given Stephen peace.  
That was the best Jon could hope for anymore.

"-and so, I want you to be good and strong for me okay?" Stephen finished softly. Kissing the top of their heads like he had done since the day they were born, he hugged them as tightly as he could manage, hushing their sobs and wiping their tears.  
Stephen didn't want him to bring the kids around anymore. He didn't want to risk them watching him die.  
Jon watched as he spoke to Tracey softly. Whatever he said had her eyes filling with tears and she hugged Stephen, kissing his head and whispering her own quiet declarations. He handed her four envelopes and kissed her cheek.  
Then it was just them.  
Tracey had taken the kids back home, so Stephen didn't have to pretend anymore. The pain made him look ten years older, and Jon was next to the damn machine within seconds.  
"Jon."  
Jon ignored him. "You need to increase your morphine kid."  
"Jon not yet."  
Something in his voice made him look up.  
"Jon, you've- you've been my brother, my family, and so much more to me all these years and I just wanted to say, thank you. For everything you've done for me. And-"  
"Stop." Jon choked out, "just stop."  
Stephen stopped.  
"I can't. Please Stephen, I can't."  
Stephen blinked and then smiled, crookedly.  
"I love you Jon."  
"I love you too Stephen. So much. I'll miss you so much." Jon whispered as he pressed a quick kiss to Stephen's forehead.  
"If there's an afterlife, I will too." Stephen replied, his own kiss grazing Jon's cheek. Jon didn't tell Stephen that there was no way god wouldn't make heaven, if only just for him. He watched silently as Stephen increased the morphine.  
"Did I ever tell you," Stephen muttered as he slowly slipped into a drug-induced stupor, "my wife's name?"  
Jon shook his head.  
"It was Evie. Evie McGee.Her eyes were as bright as the stars. . . I think I'd like to see her again," Stephen muttered as he finally lost consciousness, a smile on his face.  
Jon sat by his bed in an uncomfortable plastic chair as he held Stephen's hand in his own. He resolved never to forget her name, the woman who Stephen had loved so fiercely.  
He wouldn't forget Stephen either.  
Slowly, Jon slipped into the land of dreams, dreaming of a world where Stephen had three kids, and he was happy and healthy and taking the world by a storm, and Evie McGee was more than just the name of a woman he'd never know.

  
Jon jolted awake sometime later. He looked around to see what had woken him but everything was exactly the same. The hospital staff knew not to disturb them and Stephen was-  
There was something wrong with the way he was breathing. It was peaceful, too peaceful. There was a smile on his face and Jon's heart ached for a time when Stephen's smiles had been fuller. Happier.  
Jon contemplated calling the nurses but Stephen had signed a DNR. They'd just hover awkwardly.

  
He finally settled on just holding Stephen's hand. When Stephen's breathing had sounded harsher, more painful, Jon had whispered "I'm here. Stephen I'm right here. It's all going to be fine. I'm here Stephen. I'm here."  
Miraculously, his breaths evened out, slowing until they finally stopped.  
One final exhale and Stephen was gone.  
Jon ran a shaky hand though Stephen's soft hair, and he didn't even realize he was crying till the tears blurred his vision and he could no longer see Stephen. Didn't they realize he never would see him again? Didn't they know that he'd never hear Stephen laugh or cry or curse again? Why couldn't they just go away and let him have this last minute with his friend? Was it so much to ask?  
A bunch of machines were wailing out alarms and Jon barely heard them over the sound of his own heart pounding in his chest. The nurses rushed in and switched them off and Tracey stood at the doorway, finally breaking down but Jon heard nothing but the beat of his own heart, cruelly mocking him with its rhythm.  
Because Stephen's was silent.

  
Two weeks and one funeral later Jon was back at work. The report had gone to John Oliver, and now they just called it The Report- with nobody's name attached. The opening sequence still showed Stephen's character though and whenever he saw it Jon's heart clenched.

Time still moved on, even though Jon had half expected the universe to fade away now that Stephen wasn't around with one of his dazzling smiles.

The nation had mourned with him. For months nobody watched John's take on the report because they, like Jon couldn't sit past the opening sequence without crying. Eventually, they scrapped the show and John moved to HBO. A year later, Jon took over The Late Show, and he did a decent job. The only criticism the critics had was that Stephen would have probably done it better. Thinking back to the intelligent, charismatic, loving man he had known, Jon agreed with them.

Nate and Maggie grew up and remembered Stephen better than he and Tracey did sometimes. They both got the letters Stephen had written them when they turned sixteen. Jon had read his years ago and still read it on days when he missed his friend. The last letter had gone to Stephen's mom.

As for Jon, he visited Stephen's grave every week for the first couple of years, and then every month, until finally he stuck to once a year- every May 13th.  
Looking down at the grave in front of him, Jon found himself hoping there was an afterlife. He hoped Stephen was happy with Evie.

Some nights he'd dream of Stephen- tall and happy and healthy, and for a while he'd believe that reality. Then he'd wake up to his world and weep for his lost friend. And Tracey, wonderful, beautiful Tracey would hold him and cry with him and make it all better if only for just a while.

Some days, he'd remember the laughing promises they'd made to each other- growing old together, annoying Tracey with Star Wars talk and bad jokes forever- and on those days he couldn't bring himself to laugh. It felt too much like a betrayal to Stephen.  
The day it had hit him really hard though was the day Maggie had brought home her first boyfriend. After the two had left, Jon opened his storage cupboard to retrieve the baseball bat he had stowed away for this very occasion(Tracey had made him promise to wait until after Maggie and her boyfriend left for the movie).  
The sight of a second bat resting atop his own had brought him to his knees.

Jon learned early on that it was the little things that hurt the most.  
The way, in the beginning, he'd sometimes forget and get enough lunch for two people, the way he'd crack a joke and then look around for a dark haired man's warm laughter only to realize he'd never hear it again. The way it had taken him almost five years to stop looking over his right shoulder whenever he got a new idea he wanted to run by someone (Stephen. Not someone - Stephen) and the startled blink when he'd find nobody- or worse, somebody else- standing there.  
The way he always felt incomplete now, off balanced, like there was a part of him that was missing and now the rest of his body was trying to adjust to a new center of gravity- a new reality.  
Jon had almost taken up smoking again, but the minute he'd picked up the box of Marlboro, he read the statutory warning about cancer and nearly threw up as the word brought back the memory of Stephen frail and scared and hurting on his hospital bed, fighting for every breath. He never touched another cigarette again.

Jon's life had always been hard. Life without Stephen, however, had become almost unbearable. But Jon soldiered through every day, because Stephen had told him to in the letter he had written.  
Tracing Stephen's name on the headstone - why hadn't he ever teased Stephen about his middle name?- Jon prepared to leave. Sighing, he turned around and walked away, back to the show and busy city life, most of which had lost its allure now that he didn't have Stephen to share it with. God. He had missed Stephen for far too long.  
He took comfort in the fact that he would see Stephen again.  
Someday.  
But for now he had a family to look after. His family. Stephen's family.  
Their family.

* * *

 

_". . .Live the life I didn't get a chance to Jon. Miss me, but don't make Tracey and the kids miss us both. Remember, no matter what happens, no matter where you are or what you do, if I retain any form of a consciousness I will love you. You are my brother, my best friend, my inspiration and the greatest and kindest man I know. It was the honor of my life to know you and love you and love your family._   
_Our family._   
_Thank you for every moment of it._   
_From eternity,_   
_Stephen Colbert."_

 

 

* * *

 


End file.
